Louis A Pincus chairman of the Jewish Agency and of the World Zionist Executive was buried on Friday at Mount Herzl alongside other leaders of the Zionist movement. David Ben Gurion, Zalman Shazar, and Avraham Hartzfeld joined with President Ephraim Katzir, Premier Golda Meir, the Cabinet and the Jewish Agency Executive in accompanying Mr Pincus on his last Journey.
“He was dear to us, he was great and he was young.” said Mr. Meir turning to Mrs. Chasya Pincus and her two sons “Had he lived longer’–as by right he should–have he could have done so much more.” Mr. Pincus died Wednesday morning at the age of 61. Walking in front of the plain coffin wrapped in the national flag, Mrs. Meir said, “We fixed a meeting in a few days time to talk of Jewish education. This is the first time you haven’t kept your promise.”
The Premier said Pincus’ life and work were the proof “that any Jew anywhere on earth is part of the Jewish people and that the link between the Jewish people and the State of Israel is the very life blood of the nation.” She recalled Pincus’ role as the first director general of El Al and said the later achievements of the national carrier were due in no small part to his efforts. A delegation of El Al officials and stewardesses attended the funeral in their uniforms.
The coffin lay in state for two hours, before the service, in the forecourt of Binyaneh Ha’Ooma convention hall flanked by two flaming torches and with the members of the Jewish Agency Executive standing as a guard of honor. The service was conducted by the Army chief chaplain. Rabbi Mordechai Piron. his deputy. Rabbi Gad Navon, and the chief cantor. Ravserev Avraham Carmel.
A MAN OF VISION AND ACTION
Max Fisher of Detroit, the chairman of the Jewish Agency Board of Governors and the man who helped Pincus reconstitute the Agency so that it now embraces the major fund raising bodies, said he mourned Pincus ” as a brother, We were very close He brought me to understand the meaning of Zionist ideology. He was a man of vision. There was nothing small about Louis Pincus. I will miss you Louis. We shared many dreams for the future.
Leon Dultzin, treasurer of the Jewish Agency hailed Pincus as ” the man of Zionist action. the great builder. Only last week we saw him in the full momentum of his work burning with enthusiasm and the joy of creativity. devising new plans for Jewish education (at the COJO conference in Geneva). Dultzin recalled Pincus leadership in the struggle for Soviet Jewry in Brussels, in London. in Geneva. in Jerusalem. and in New York He felt with all his Zionist vision that in this struggle lay the fate of three million Jews. I have no words to conform the bereaved family. We are all today a bereaved family which has no comfort.
Among the mourners were Knesset Speaker Yisrael Yeshayahu. Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren, (Sephardi Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef was ill). Tel Aviv’s Chief Rabbi Yedidya Frankel. U.S. Embassy Charge D’Affaires Jack Button and some of the top Jewish leaders from overseas.
These included United Jewish Appeal leaders Paul Zuckerman. Gottleib Hammer. Me! Dubinsky; Sam Rothberg, Israel Boads Organization chairman: Mrs. Charlotte Jacobson. chairman. American Section World Zionist Organization: Jacob Stein, chairman, Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organization Maurice Boukstein Jewish Agency and WZO counsel: Rabbi Israel Miller, President American Zionist Federation Jacques Torczyner, member WZO Executive and former Zionist Organization of American president and Keren Hayesod leaders from around the world.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
